What is a BLOG?

Blogging like a sir (Photo from Aylin Vedad
of thedailyposh.blogspot.com)

As the title shows, this is a manual about blog. And even most of us know what that means, its is always better to know the definition and what are its coverage. We will take this part by part so it won't bore you. As the word itself has become a very general word used in many ways and forms and might have a thousand books written just for its definition. 

Blog might have a lot of etymologies, one of which according to wikipedia, came from the world "weblog":

The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999. Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.

Blogs first surfaced in the 1990's as the growth of personal computers and the internet came to many homes and businesses. It was in the early 2000's that blog have entered mainstream as the internet boom also exploded after the turn of the millennium.

Blogs at those times were started of personal experiences and political and social commentaries that sometimes become popular when it becomes the talk of the town. And until now they are still of experience and opinion but sometimes mixed with advertising and viral campaigns. Blogs can start off with simple status posts to a thesis like form which many readers might get bored and will leave the site sooner. That is why the average blog post may contain 100-800 words per post. Photos and videos embedded on the entry also helps makes it interesting. 

But this does not mean that blogging has become completely commercial, the fact that it is still owned by a persons or a group gives its uniqueness and personality. I have started my blog in 2003 after reading about Blogger.com and how it is becoming popular. And with the rise of the social networking sites like friendster, multiply and facebook has also ignited public interest in sharing news in a broader scale.

Popular blog websites are Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr (though many dispute tumblr as more of a photo sharing site than a blog site). Social Networks also sometimes have a blog feature but seems to have limited audience and templates that many are looking for. Just like the stars, topics are endless in blogs. Either be talking about personal views about an event or person, to the latest gadget out (or soon to be) in the market, and even scandals with politics, celebrities and even pornography.

Thus Blogging breaks the barriers of the print and television as is can be as tactless and uncensored as it can be as there is no worldwide governing body to regulate posting. However, blogging sites does monitor and also makes regulations in posting and filters for adult content.

Now let's break the barrier for a moment and wait for the next part. I hate to cut it off soon but as we define blog as a short yet concise "cork board" this makes "us" come back and wait for the next one to be posted.

And if you want to (though not required), subscribing to the e-mail feeds would be great.

Until the next part!